Moshe Milstein, a religious Jew who is incarcerated at the federal prison in Otisville, N.Y., wants his Maimonides back. Officials at the Otisville prison recently removed hundreds of books from the chapel library there””including, Milstein charges in court documents, works by the great 12th-century rabbi and physician Maimonides as well as the Zohar, the ancient text upon which the mystical practice of Kabbalah is based. The books were removed, Bureau of Prisons officials explain, to comply with new rules set earlier this year. To reduce the risk that prisoners will find hateful or radicalizing (read: terrorist) materials in chapel libraries, the BOP has developed lists of 150 approved books per religion for 20 religions, including Bahai, Mormonism and Jehovah’s Witnesses. In all of the bureau’s 114 prisons, chaplains are in the midst of dramatic reorganizations, removing from shelves any book not on one of the BOP’s lists. “It was a huge undertaking,” says Traci Billingsley, a BOP spokeswoman.
Prisoners sue after Restriction Imposed on Religious Books
Posted in * Culture-Watch, Religion & Culture
When did we start worrying about terrorism by pacifist groups like Bahai and Jehovah’s Witnesses?
Is the Koran on the allowed or forbidden list for Muslims? I mean, that’s what this is all about, right? If it’s on the allowed then each of the other approved religions should get one free violence promoting work as well… Just to be fair.
This is assinine.
# 1 – when the ACLU thought police got their claws in.
#1,
Because our charters require that the government treat all people equally, even though they aren’t.
It is a wonder the Holy Bible wasn’t pulled off the shelf too. It has some interesting tales also. Nuff said!